In addition to the big news of Bill Peters’ resignation on Friday and his fast landing in Calgary on Monday (My article on Peters’ resignation is HERE.), the news wire for the Carolina Hurricanes has been pretty busy otherwise with smaller news too.

Sebastian Aho and Teuvo Teravainen join Team Finland for world tourney

On Monday, it was announced that Teravainen and Aho would be joining Team Finland. I am in favor of these young players, especially Aho extending their season by a bit. My hope is that Aho gets more time at the center position, and it also should help him to play some games after the regular 82-game slate to season length with playoffs.

The Charlotte Checkers win first two games in their playoff series

After what seemed to be a losing effort through two periods in Friday’s series opener, the Checkers stormed back for two goals in the third period and an overtime game-winner to steal game one in the series. The Checkers then followed that up with a 2-0 win on Saturday. The series now moves to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton where the Checkers just need to win one of three on the road to win the five-game series and advance to the next round of the playoffs.

The first win saw Aleksi Saarela finally break the ice in the third period, Valentin Zykov score the tying goal on the power play and Lucas Wallmark score on a tip to win the game in overtime.

Haydn Fleury scored early and Josiah Didier scored later to stake the Checkers to a 2-1 lead. Two empty-net tallies resulted in a 4-1 final that looked wider than the realty of the closely-contested battle.

Jordan Staal was named a Masterton Trophy finalist

For being a model player and Canes hockey citizen despite hard times personally for him and his wife Heather with the loss of their infant child, Jordan Staal was the Hurricanes nominee for the trophy give to the player who best exemplifies perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to ice hockey. The veteran group of finalists includes Roberto Luongo and Brian Boyle.

Chuck Fletcher from the Minnesota Wild is latest general manager to become available

On Monday, the Minnesota Wild relieved long-time general manager Chuck Fletcher of his duties. He represents another experienced candidate who will at least be considered as the Hurricanes’ search continues.

Paul Krepelka named Vice President of Hockey Operations

In a move that seems to push Ron Francis farther to the outside of the group running the team, agent Paul Krepelka has been hired by the Hurricanes with the title of Vice President of Hockey Operations. At a short-term, tactical level, Krepelka figures to be the person responsible for negotiating new contracts. The summer figures to be a big one on that front with Elias Lindholm and Noah Hanifin up for new deals and Sebastian Aho, Teuvo Teravainen and Jeff Skinner eligible to be extended past their current contracts that end after the 2019-20 season.

The move also adds another person who would normally be hired by the general manager and as such could represent another step in the direction of riding the ‘GM by committee’ approach longer rather than shorter.

Martin Necas scores championship game-winner

Martin Necas scored the series winner to capture the Czech Extraliga championship and put an exclamation point on his career in the Czech Republic. He should compete for an NHL roster spot next fall and land in the AHL if that does not work out. With his Czech season over, he could also be a candidate to join the Checkers.

Go Canes!

10 Comments

ctcaniac
on April 24, 2018 at 6:33 am

I too am glad Aho and Teravainen will play in the World Championships. From all the Team Finland posts at HF Boards it seems like Aho at center is a sure thing. Which makes sense because Aho has been playing center in international competition for quite some time. In fact, that makes the strongest case for him as the 1C going forward.

The Checkers displayed two things I hope infects the team in Raleigh as players (and hopefully a coach) move up: a belief that they are going to win whether they give up an early goal or are trailing by two entering the third period; scoring from the D.

Necas is also playing in the World Championship–so he won’t join Checkers.

1. I’m glad Aho and Teravainen are playing for Team Finland. I have expressed my thoughts that I thought Aho was a better player at wing two or three times in the recent past. My opinion seems to be in the minority, so I suppose I must be wrong on that one (so what’s new). That being the case, I will join with most of the Canes community and support the move to center for him.

2. The more I view the Checkers and what they have done so far this year the more excited I am about more than a couple of them are capable and will become Canes players next season. I am also starting to lean towards Velluchi as the next coach of the Canes. He’s familiar with all the Canes and Checkers players strengths and weaknesses and would come into training camp, which is short, and not have as much of a problem sorting out who is ready and who is not. Regardless, whoever Mr. Dundon selects, I’m going to support the move as I am sure they are smarter than I when it comes to things like that. For what it is worth (not much), I am in favor of Velluchi or Tibbetts right now with Velluchi rating ahead of Tibbetts.

3. Fletcher has done a good job at Minnesota. It’s hard to gauge why he was let go. It appears to me this is a move made by an owner who is frustrated because the Wild has not won a Stanley Cup. If this is the case, I’ve got news for him, there are about 25 owners and GM’s who have not won a Stanley Cup in years and years. Would Fletcher be a good candidate for us? Why not? I sure don’t know. If he was named as our GM I sure would support the move if for no other reason as I am all in supporting TD.

4. Necas doesn’t need to join the Checkers right now. The Checkers are involved in playoffs and have a great chemistry going for them. No need to inject a newcomer into the process right now.

5. ctcaniac’s 2nd paragraph above is also right on IMO (How does that guy come up with this good stuff at 6:00 AM?).

I am hoping that Team Finland finds significant success – Sepe and Turbo need to remember what winning is like.

The last two games remind me why I am a Checkers’ fan. I was at Saturday’s – as a lot of Canes fans from Raleigh apparently were. Ned makes a mistake (and he owns up to it later) and the puck goes in early. And that is the end of the Pens’ scoring. How often have we seen the Canes tighten up after early goals against?

I am glad to see Jordan is getting the respect he deserves for this season – there is nothing worse than losing a child except, perhaps, knowing for 6 months that you are going to lose the child. I cannot imagine that burden and yet he was there for the team and for the fans.

Fletcher is hardly a solid choice for our GM – he who has burdened the Wild with the albatross contracts to Suter and Parise and an aging game. I question his judgment and skillset.

Interesting observation about Krepelka, Matt. Ron is being even more marginalized – nevermind he gets to watch an outsider do what he used to do. Plus Krepelka has extensive experience as a sports agent – he knows the game and I have to assume he plays it the way Dundon wants it played. Look for some tough negotiations. As a side note, wouldn’t a VP of Hockey Operations be hired by the President of HO and not the GM? I thought the GM typically reports to the PHO.

Necas came up big in the Czech league this season – did you all see the extended interview he gave to the Czech media a week ago? Hopefully he continues to find success in the WC and can bring a winning attitude here.

I took a look at Minnesota’s salaries on CapFriendly and raleightj you are entirely correct about Fletcher’s performance there. He appears to have overpaid almost everyone on the club if for what he paid he expected a Stanley Cup. He paid enough to expect a Stanley Cup but in performance he got players who were only capable of making one round in the playoffs. Other GM’s in the league paid much less for talent and have made the playoffs but not the Cup. Thanks for the heads up tj and I revise my opinion.

My gut feeling says Francis will not be part of the team past July 1st. He seems destined to move on, perhaps a candidate for another GM gig. The Krepelka hiring is a step in the process towards a lateral decision-making group.

Dundon’s recent interview is very telling. It appears his first priority is to give a talented person who is undervalued a chance to build their market (this likely explains the reported, yet unconfirmed lower salary to start). He finds it hard to believe there are only 30 people who could perform the job, and I would agree with this assessment in not over-paying someone for their past (besides most GMs operate unilaterally and that goes against Dundon’s philosophy it would appear). As he also stated, he’s looking for talent, not resume. So I think what we can expect is a GM in place who is under the radar to the other teams. What we shouldn’t expect is a GM who already created his own pedestal (which is probably a good thing considering GM’s can be overhyped). If it were up to me, I’d prefer a small collection of individuals providing buy-in towards a decision than just one.

I was watching the Maple Leafs beat the Bruins last night. I watched Ron Hainsey play fast, hard, and competently under heavy Bruin pressure. I heard the announcers talking about the previous game where Hainsey was kept on the ice for a very long time during a late game PK. The coach was asked why he did that? His answer was interesting. He answered the question with a question. “Who else should I have used?”

It occurred to me that Since Hainsey was traded away, he won a Stanley Cup with the Pens, eating large chunks of minutes.

I seem to recall that someone who visits this site predicted that Ronnie was going to trade Hainsey away. As a snide aside he added that Carolina fans would not shed a tear at his departure.

Wow! This guy should not try to make a living handicapping hockey talent. Since he left, he has been worth his weight in the gold. And the Canes?

We have been in a real pickle looking desperately for a competent and experienced defenseman.

powerless, I don’t know who made the negative comment about Hainsey when he was traded, but IMO whoever it was did not know how much Hainsey contributed to the Canes. My only other comment is we traded Hainsey, not because he wasn’t a very good hockey player (he is), but because he was going to be a free agent and could sign anywhere without us getting anything for him if I remember correctly. Hainsey was not only a good solid defenseman, he also was a very good fighter and stood up for his team mates.

There was an interesting article over on Hockeybuzz recently about how Mike Babcock is overvalued as a coach, he has not gotten past the first round of the playoffs since coaching the Red Wings dream team 10 years ago (fortunately that could change this year).
I don’t necessarily read too much into that article, but it´s agood reminder that turning the Canes fortunes around takes an effort from everyone, there is no one magic bullet, be it a GM or a coach or the 1C center.
I also think, while the talent is not on par with, say, Pit, the Canes underperformed relative to expectations and the problem has a lot to do with team spirit, passion and drive, fixing that is a key part of the team’s new identity. There are a lot of talented hockey players, the trick is to find the right combination of playres and motivate them to work harder.

I think RF and BP had to go because of their failure to do so, which does not mean they can’t do it somewhere els, they just lost this particular group of players.

The team also needs to be careful not to swing too far from the stingy-no-risk side of things to giving out albatross contracts to a handful of superstars. It’s always about recognizing the right fit and finding a good value. That’s what Vegas did an amazing job of and how teams like Nashville and the Bluejackets were built.
They still lack the superstar player that gets them from making it through 1 or 2 rounds in the playoffs to winning the cup (the jury is out on Nashville, I don’t think they have it, though they are, along with the Leafs, my favorite team).

Problem wasn’t that we traded Hainsey. It was that we didn’t replace him adequately in the offseason. TVR was brought in to fill the gap, but he is at best a bottom pairing defenseman (which was fine in hindsight) but he plays a softer and less physical game than Hainsey does. To make matters worse, Faulk and most of the defense regressed or remained stagnant.

Hainsey has generally been a top 4 guy his whole career until recently and uses his size and body well. We certainly missed his stabilizing veteran presence and candor to boot.

It is true that losing Hainsey wasn’t an issue–he was on the team for three full seasons and the Canes weren’t really better. But the D is the problem.

The top three D scorers for Carolina (Hanifin, Faulk, Slavn) combined for 93 points. For the nine teams left in the playoffs the minimum is 106 (Las Vegas). The only other teams under 110 are Pittsburgh and Winnipeg at 107 and those are two teams with perhaps the best forwards in the league. The teams with balanced forward scoring like Carolina (San Jose and Nashville) registered 132 and 146 defensemen points respectively.

Hainsey’s best year in Carolina was 19 points–so he might be playing important minutes in the playoffs, but he would not have delivered a playoff opportunity in Raleigh.

The problem is that the D was the putative strength of the Canes going into 17-18. Yet the D did not produce points. Hanifin’s scoring improved but both Faulk’s and Slavin’s did not.

So all the concern with getting “greasy goals” (shot statistics actually indicate that Carolina was better than average at getting shots within 10 feet of the goal) and needing a 1C might be misplaced. Imagine how much better the 18-19 Canes will be if the blueline produces 30 additional points.

I think for all the criticism of BP, the one that is often overlooked is that his system did not emphasize scoring from the blueline.
Even though they lost in the first round I think Columbus is in many ways the team most like Carolina and they produced 117 points from their top 3 D and made the playoffs.

Edmonton with two elite centers had a disastrous season due partly to only 68 points from its top 3 D. Chicago had five 20-goal scorers but one of their worst seasons in a decade–top 3 D produced 78 points. NYI with Tavares, Barzal, Lee, Bailey, and Eberle as potent scorers sill finished even with Carolina. Their top 3 D accounted for 97 points.

Let’s hope the new coach finds a way to get Slavin/Hanifin/Pesce or perhaps Bean to break 40 points–ideally three Canes’ D will break 35. If they do, the numbers indicate a playoff appearance.